Google has confirmed today in their official blog post, that they have been collecting data from Wi-Fi networks with their Google Maps Street View Cars as they have driven around. The issue was brought up several weeks ago by the data protection authority (DPA) in Hamburg, Germany. Google has denied that it collected personally identifiable data in a blog post dated April 27, 2010, but now admits that it actually has been.

Google claims that the data collection wan an accident

So how did this happen? Quite simply, it was a mistake. In 2006 an engineer working on an experimental WiFi project wrote a piece of code that sampled all categories of publicly broadcast WiFi data. A year later, when our mobile team started a project to collect basic WiFi network data like SSID information and MAC addresses using Google’s Street View cars, they included that code in their software—although the project leaders did not want, and had no intention of using, payload data.

4 Responses to “Google confirms collecting data from Wi-Fi networks”

There is serious concerns that this technology was every created in the first place, that such a piece of technology was activated and running unchecked and that it took a DPA questioning based on a hunch for the truth to be uncovered.
Less rules over the people – more rules for the corporations

Google’s head guy is working for Obama and his people. Everything this administration does is about stealing freedom and stripping privacy away. I don’t think this was any accident. As those involved in the Bilderberg Group say…nothing is done by accident…it is orchestrated and planned.